quote:

Originally posted by ridewv:
I can see maybe an AR but do thieves even bother stealing old rifles or shotguns?

About ten years ago our Post Master's home was broken into, and she and her husband lost a pretty good-sized collection of older firearms, family heirlooms, along with their modern guns.

They'll steal anything, whether or not it's nailed down.

I was thinking earlier this evening of a restaurant in St Charles, IL that was a gangster hangout in the 1920's and 1930's. There were a couple dewat Thompsons hanging on the wall when I was there about 20 years ago, and I wonder if they're still there, or if they've been stolen by now.

I have a gun cabinet, which is almost 50 years old. I purchased it back in the '70s. Solid oak, double doors, drawers underneath. Beautiful piece of furniture, but I do not keep firearms in it any longer. At one time I kept my modern firearms in it. My collector guns I kept in safes.
Now, I keep all of my firearms in safes. The gun cabinet stands empty.

I had a wealthy big game, African safari dude who lived on the beat next to mine. Going to the house on burglar alarms was a treat. His game room was full of African big game mounts and the walls were lined with gun cabinets.
A major league man cave. I had a 6 gun cabinet at one time but sold it to get a safe. Just smarter these days. The guy I sold my cabinet to converted it to keep his wife's Hummel figurines in.

quote:

Originally posted by slosig:
I’ve see a couple of glass fronted ones (in the People’s Republic of California no less! ), one in a friend’s (in his late 80s) living room and another at Mrs. slosig’s uncle’s house. I’d guess the uncle is in his 70s. It may not be right at all, but I have this notion that somewhere in Montana or Wyoming it would probably be complete normal, expected, and not raise an eyebrow to have such a cabinet in one’s living room.

I love the idea of a vault room / office, but it bugs me that it feels necessary to lock up what I think should be normal, respected tools. Ah well, we live in the world we live in, not the world we think it should be...

Unfortunately, even here in Montana, a gun cabinet would be at risk. Not from the hard-working ranchers/farmers/loggers/railroaders but from the cocaine/meth/heroin/opioid tweakers that would break into the house to steal the guns. We have more gun safes than gun cabinets now.

quote:

Originally posted by creslin:

and I really hope that I DO offend someone
anyone that gets offended by that is not someone who I give a shit about having around

Exactly!

If they're in MY house and they get offended, they are obviously not friends.

China cabinets are out now too.

Don't be hating on us millennials. Some of us were brought up right by guys like you.

If I had money to light on fire, all the nice hardwood and blued stuff - my 586, my dad's Savage 99, my Winchester Featherlight, my M1 carbine, the Garand I want to buy and many other future acquisitions - they'd be in a nice hardwood and glass cabinet in the sitting room on the first floor, with the evil black tactical stuff locked in the safe in the gun room.

There are a couple of offerings for gun cabinets that have serious security - plexiglass, steel frames, heavy duty locks under the wood trim.

Perhaps not as common as yesteryear, but they're still around, and evolving with the times.

That's what I want, an impact resistant glass (like they make hurricane windows out of) front, mounted into a steel frame wrapped in wood or something more durable that looks like wood.

quote:

Originally posted by Nuclear:
That's what I want, an impact resistant glass (like they make hurricane windows out of) front, mounted into a steel frame wrapped in wood or something more durable that looks like wood.

Yes I would like one, too. With plexiglass, and a cable lock, maybe. But I probably wouldn't spend the necessary bucks for it.

Some of my friends have glass cabinets, but they all have safes. I have the two-gun rack that was in my childhood bedroom 50 years ago hanging in my living room now, with a pair of Winchester 94s in it.

It's a shame to have to hide our guns. They are often works of art and need to be displayed!

I my hood ,that would be a yes,got rid of my display three decades ago.
That happened when my older neighbor came home early on the exact day that he found about twenty of his wall hanger stacked by his front door and two assholes running away

If I didn't need to worry about people stealing my shit, I'd be up for a nice gun cabinet to display some of my nicer long guns. We live in a pretty nice, for the most part crime free neighborhood, but there are still break-ins so everything goes in a safe, except I've taken to displaying one hand gun in my office/cave which get's put away if we're gone. <sigh> the times we live in.

Are the obsolete?

As a security device, yes. But, really were they ever and effective security device?

As a display case for your nice blue steel and walnut long guns? There as effective as they've ever been.

quote:

Originally posted by Aeteocles:
China cabinets are out now too.

How much of that is due to security concerns and how is due to fine China becoming obsolete? It seems that silver flatware is going out (or has gone) of style too. I know of families where when the parents passed, none of the kids wanted the flatware.

quote:

Originally posted by ridewv:
I can see maybe an AR but do thieves even bother stealing old rifles or shotguns?

I used to have one of those glass fronted gun cabinets. Got rid of it years ago. Security reasons as well as the fact that we had a number of visitors to the house for some group study and just friends visiting. Decided that there was no need to advertise the fact that I had several guns.

Have more now, and all except my carry piece and a long gun in the bedroom for security reasons.

My brother has quite a collection and he has so well camouflaged his gun room that nobody will find it if they just break in to steal and run.

When we moved here this whole area was a low crime area and robberies were really rare. Not so much now. With the invasion crime has move closer into our county.

Back in the 1960s one of my father's friends built him a wooden gun cabinet for his 4 long guns (dad didn't have any handguns). When dad died I inherited the guns and cabinet. The Ruger 10-22 had been promised to my oldest nephew (dad's grandson) when he turned 12, and I honored that promise. The 3 remaining guns are still in the cabinet, which is in my upstairs bedroom. Most of my other guns are in a safe inside an upstairs closet.

FWIW, I do not have random visitors to my home. The number of regular visitors is limited to 2--my Handyman and his wife, my Maid, a couple who have worked for me for more than 25 years and who are quite accustomed to being around firearms. My Best Friend lives in Denison (an hour away) and he does come once in a while--he's a LEO and we originally met (in Germany) due to our mutual interest in shooting.

Although my neighborhood is fairly quiet, it's not considered to be a "safe" one and I do worry a little about break-ins. However, I've not heard of any recently. Most of my neighbors don't even know I have any guns.

flashguy

My uncle proudly displayed his elaborate rifle collection when Weatherby rifles were just becoming the hot item. Later he moved the case into a basement closet area.

By 1985 he had abandoned that even living in a very VERY rural area, in favor of steel safe hidden in his numerous out buildings and metal scrap piles.

An old family friend locally had a monsterously strong walk-in gun locker with heavy security door professionally constructed. About a decade later, some night visitors defeated the frame door install & part of his 5 generation heirloom collection walked out. While in a usually secured room in an out building, there was some minor flow-thru of general public in the larger room. Speculation of potential leaks remain unproven.

Security of glass was abandoned by one in favor of security of hidden steel. Success, perhaps by luck.

Security of professionally designed & constructed gun vault, failed....probably by duplicity of some one that knew someone he trusted.

The only gun cabinets I've seen personally in the last 30 years have something other than guns in them.

I have one, relative gave it to me after I helped when he had a house fire. It’s a good quality one, very minimal smoke/fire damage.

I have it in the modern basement, not far from the safe. I have a few muzzle-loaders in it, then a 17 HMR and a 204, for backyard varmints.

So sad about no more gun cabinets and good ole rifle racks in the pickup truck.

My grandma still has my Grandpa's gun cabinet in her house. Personally, I don't know that I could keep it out unless it housed cheap 22LR's.

Still probably fairly common in the small town I grew up in.
Much more than 2-3k people and I think you start seeing the number of old school gun cabinets drop correspondingly.